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Supreme
Court Justices
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Edward Sanford (1865-1930) |
 Edward
Sanford was born in Tennessee on July 23, 1865. He received a bachelor's
degree from the University of Tennessee, and his law degree from Harvard
University. Sanford eventually returned home to Tennessee to practice
law. He did so for about 17 years. In 1907, Sanford was appointed
assistant Attorney General, and the next year, was appointed judge for
the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
He remained a district judge until 1923, when Chief Justice and former
President
William
Howard Taft lobbied President Warren Harding on Sanford's behalf.
Sanford was an unusual combination of southerner and Republican, which
made him acceptable to Harding. Sanford was on the Court for just over
seven years. He wrote several opinions for the Court suggesting that
parts of the Bill of Rights were applicable not just to the federal
government, but to the states as well through their "incorporation" into
the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. He interpreted the due
process clause of the 14th Amendment narrowly, dissenting in Adkins v.
Children's Hosp. (1923) (holding minimum wage law for women in D.C.
unconstitutional), and writing a number of opinions for the Court
rejecting substantive due process challenges. He wrote a number of tax,
admiralty, FELA, Indian law and state boundary cases. In the free speech
area, Sanford wrote the Court's opinion in Whitney v. California
(1927) (upholding conviction for violating state's Syndicalism Act) and
for the Court in Fiske v. Kansas (1927) (reversing conviction for
violation of Syndicalism Act), which limited the impact of Whitney.
Sanford was a moderate voice on the Court during the 1920s. He often joined the opinions of the Court's "liberal" wing of Stone, Holmes and Brandeis, and but also joined some dissents written by Sutherland. In FELA matters, Sanford was harsh on plaintiffs. Sanford wrote the Court's opinion in the Pocket Veto Case (1929), which upheld the President's ability to veto a congressional bill simply by doing nothing when the bill was sent to the President within 10 days of the end of the Congressional session. Sanford's reputation may have suffered historically for several reasons: 1) he was on the Court merely for seven years; 2) he is not easy to "peg" or pigeonhole; 3) his opinions often concern matters of statutory interpretation; and 4) he was on a Court with three justices who have been the subject of many literary and academic portraits, and he suffers by comparison. Sanford died on March 8, 1930, the same day as Chief Justice William Howard Taft. He was 64 years old. |
